Panthers V Raiders

[Iamback]

Without nath and luai we will have to be at our absolute best.

Bit concerened about salmons lateral defence in the 6. I think he will be targetted.

Eiso should come in.

Without nath and luai we need to play back more around the ruck like 2nd 40 last week.. api amd edwards really got us on the front foot by just going back behind the ruck and it exhausted parras big men. Canberra are a big team too. Without the polish of nath and luai we will need to wesr them down first..

Expecting a close one. Maybe 22-18

We are full strength minus the 2 halves.

No excuses should we lose

 

[Iamback]

Fuel the hate Fox Sports!

The players love it.

 

[Girds89]

We are full strength minus the 2 halves.

No excuses should we lose

The state of origin halfs. Nathan arguably in the top 3 in the game...

They are absolutley huge loses.. not two ways about that. You simply cant replace those two..

For us to win the other 15 will have to be at their best.. we wont ice oppurtunities like we do with nath and luai. Will be more of a grind.

And i have no doubt canberra will be super fired up.

 

[ColdWetPanther]

It seems the raiders have gone to the press to say they are going to ambush us.just quietly maybe not telling us its coming may have helped it work better

Can it even be an ambush if someone knows it is going to occur? Isn’t that just an attack?

 

[Iamback]

The state of origin halfs. Nathan arguably in the top 3 in the game...

They are absolutley huge loses.. not two ways about that. You simply cant replace those two..

For us to win the other 15 will have to be at their best.. we wont ice oppurtunities like we do with nath and luai. Will be more of a grind.

And i have no doubt canberra will be super fired up.

We average 11 points a game against though. Defence will win against a mid table team - well it should

 

[maple_69]

Halves out is way overblown for us, particularly this year. Luai has certainly helped that left edge purr but isn’t fundamental to our structure. SOS has shown he can do a poor man’s Cleary in terms of kicking and directing play at an ok level. Api has been driving our attack the last 3 months.

There’s no great reason why our go forward and domination of the ruck will be impacted by our outs. If we play 60% in the Raiders half and have 55% possession, they don’t win.

 

[The Realist]

Halves out is way overblown for us, particularly this year. Luai has certainly helped that left edge purr but isn’t fundamental to our structure. SOS has shown he can do a poor man’s Cleary in terms of kicking and directing play at an ok level. Api has been driving our attack the last 3 months.

There’s no great reason why our go forward and domination of the ruck will be impacted by our outs. If we play 60% in the Raiders half and have 55% possession, they don’t win.

Whilst I am inclined to agree with all that people are also underestimating the defensive capabilities of Nath and Luai. Nathan is the best defensive half in the competition by a long way.

Luai himself is also a very good defender these days. So not only are we going to miss some points in attack, we will also concede more in defence.

 

[mxlegend99]

Whilst I am inclined to agree with all that people are also underestimating the defensive capabilities of Nath and Luai. Nathan is the best defensive half in the competition by a long way.

Luai himself is also a very good defender these days. So not only are we going to miss some points in attack, we will also concede more in defence.

Also our halves are the reason we dominate possession so comfortably.

In the 2.75 games both have missed. We have 2 wins and 1 loss. But our possession wasn't that great

Vs Bulldogs - we had 45% possession
Vs Tigers - we had 49% possession
Vs Eels - we had 45% possession

Earlier in season when cleary was out but Luai played:

Vs Manly - we had 57% possession
Vs Dragons - we had 46% possession
Vs knights - we had 52% possession

So our average is 53% for the season.
Our average with Luai and no Nathan is 51.6%
Our average with neither is 46.3%


Obviously there are other factors to consider in these results. Vs Eels we were down a man for 80% of the game. Vs Tigers and Bulldogs we had others out too.

But the early season games we had 20 mins against 12 vs Dragons. 48 mins vs 12 against Knights. So that helped us a bit too.

I think Nathans game management and precision is seriously underrated. Aside from round 1 SOS has just looked like a solid reserve grader. Done his job admirably. But we lose a bit all around without Nathan.

 

[Iamback]

Whilst I am inclined to agree with all that people are also underestimating the defensive capabilities of Nath and Luai. Nathan is the best defensive half in the competition by a long way.

Luai himself is also a very good defender these days. So not only are we going to miss some points in attack, we will also concede more in defence.

We have a decent sample size of games without Cleary to see the defence doesn't fall away.

As for both not playing we won both games this year, Lost 1 game last year 19-18 during Origin.

So nothing to suggest our defence falls away enough to cost a game

 

[Munky]

Outside of Parra SOS hasn't played against a team who is in the current top 8 all season.

Hard to gauge when he has only played nuffy teams.

 

[Iamback]

Also our halves are the reason we dominate possession so comfortably.

In the 2.75 games both have missed. We have 2 wins and 1 loss. But our possession wasn't that great

Vs Bulldogs - we had 45% possession
Vs Tigers - we had 49% possession
Vs Eels - we had 45% possession

Earlier in season when cleary was out but Luai played:

Vs Manly - we had 57% possession
Vs Dragons - we had 46% possession
Vs knights - we had 52% possession

So our average is 53% for the season.
Our average with Luai and no Nathan is 51.6%
Our average with neither is 46.3%


Obviously there are other factors to consider in these results. Vs Eels we were down a man for 80% of the game. Vs Tigers and Bulldogs we had others out too.

But the early season games we had 20 mins against 12 vs Dragons. 48 mins vs 12 against Knights. So that helped us a bit too.

I think Nathans game management and precision is seriously underrated. Aside from round 1 SOS has just looked like a solid reserve grader. Done his job admirably. But we lose a bit all around without Nathan.

It isn't that simple though

Both those games you mentioned our completion rate was way down.

In the WT game we ran for 300 more metres, If we completed sets better then we would of had the field position to go with it. Despite having less possession we won the territory 59%-41%

In the Bulldogs game we made 10 errors to their 4. Territory we won 64% to 36%

The 2nd half last week we won the Territory 58%-42%

Kick return metres and run metres are what causes that, Our early tackles in our sets are strong and as such we can control the game in most cases

 

[Iamback]

Outside of Parra SOS hasn't played against a team who is in the current top 8 all season.

Hard to gauge when he has only played nuffy teams.

Our running metres, Kick chase gets us home. All he needs to do is let Api and Yeo run the attack he just kicks and takles

 

[ThePain]

Sunia Turuva is set to make his debut on the bench if the rumors are to be believed.

 

[Smug Panther]

Sunia Turuva is set to make his debut on the bench if the rumors are to be believed.

I don't think he's ready to play anywhere but on the wing

 

[ThePain]

I don't think he's ready to play anywhere but on the wing

Who knows. I think he will surprise.

 

[Iamback]

I don't think he's ready to play anywhere but on the wing

correct. He lacks the passing game to play anywhere else, Very strange selection

 

[Fangs]

Outside of Parra SOS hasn't played against a team who is in the current top 8 all season.

Hard to gauge when he has only played nuffy teams.

He looks okay. Will keep them competitive enough at the Dolphins.

Makes you realise just how good Cleary's kicking game is when SOS is the main kicker. We will miss that big time tomorrow.

 

[Smug Panther]

He looks okay. Will keep them competitive enough at the Dolphins.

Makes you realise just how good Cleary's kicking game is when SOS is the main kicker. We will miss that big time tomorrow.

nAtHaN iS sHiT aNd oNlY bOmBs

 

[Fangs]

nAtHaN iS sHiT aNd oNlY bOmBs

Very good bomber though.

I think he will bring the toys out during the finals. We had some tricks up our sleeve last year. 5-6 weeks off for the halves is plenty of time to figure out some set plays. Plenty of video work. Cleary isn't injured either so he can put it into practice straight away.

 

[Black Panther]

Anyone else get the feeling the incidents with the Raiders might come back to haunt us this weekend? It’s sure gunna be a hostile reception, just hope when the game plays out they might have run out of puff.